Benjamin Flanders

Benjamin Franklin Flanders (26 January 1816-13 March 1896) was Governor of Louisiana from 8 June 1867 to 8 January 1868, succeeding James Madison Wells and preceding Joshua Baker. Flanders created the Republican Party of Louisiana as a liberal party, and he was considered to be a "carpetbagger" by white southerners.

Biography
Benjamin Franklin Flanders was born on 26 January 1816 in Bristol, New Hampshire, and he graduated from Dartmouth College before moving to Louisiana to practice law. He was elected as an alderman in New Orleans as a member of the US Democratic Party, which held conservative beliefs during the 19th century. However, he opposed the secession of the Confederate States of America, and he fled from the city in 1861 when Governor Thomas Overton Moore ordered for Confederate States Army troops to seize military posts statewide. After the American Civil War's end, Flanders was elected Governor of Louisiana as a member of the US Republican Party, and he helped in repealing the "Black Codes". Because of his membership in the Radical Republicans, he was forced out of office by General Winfield Scott Hancock, and he served as Mayor of New Orleans from 1870 to 1872. He died in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana in 1896.